Our Very Best Recipes

It’s a total flavor bomb.

They’re too cute.

The flavorful salsa verde broth is so flavorful.

It’s a little sweeter and a little smoother.

The chocolate sauce is a must.

It’s all about that crunch.

They've got a double dose of sprinkles.

Are you already doing this?!

Master this easy method.

This is the one breakfast casserole you need.

Mini chocolate chips make it so pretty.

They’re like loaded baked potatoes — only way easier.

For serious cheese-lovers only.

It’s perfect for cozy nights in.

Don’t forget the crackers!

Melt-in-your-mouth good.

Light, crunchy, and refreshing.

My family begs for it.

Wait till you taste the dressing.

Don't forget the flaky salt.

The perfect bite.

So good, I eat them straight from the pan.

It’s easy to get caught up in planning the big Thanksgiving dinner and your dessert spread, so here’s your friendly reminder to not forget the appetizers. Because a pre-dinner nibble or two of something tasty is always a good idea (especially when partnered with a Thanksgiving cocktail!). As for what to make, we’re firm believers that Thanksgiving appetizers should look and taste totally impressive, but be shockingly easy to pull off.

It’s loaded with flavor.

The sauce is liquid gold.

Every bite is heavenly.

Down to the buttery breadcrumb topping.

Chex mix is the ultimate DIY snack. It’s crunchy, just the right amount of salty, and stays good for several weeks, making it the perfect thing to keep on the counter for midday or pre-dinner nibbling. Plus, our version can be made with whatever cereal, toasted nuts, and crunchy snacks you’ve stocked up on.Many Chex mix recipes (including the original) have you simply melt some butter and pour it over the ingredients.

It’s a classic for good reason.

I am very worried, friends. Worried that the fear of pie crusts may be keeping a great many of you from making your own pies at home. Is this true? Does this sound like you? Do debates over butter vs. shortening or tender vs. flaky make you want to run and hide? Well, take a deep breath and grab your notebook — today we’re going to go over how to make a pie from start to finish, one step at a time. Here’s your first lesson: Homemade pies do not have to be perfect. Really.

Just trust me on this one.

You'll never want to prep it any other way.

Pumpkin cheesecake has become a fall and winter dessert classic for good reason. The lively, familiar spices of classic pumpkin pie are balanced by the cool and creamy goodness of a New York-style cheesecake. The combination makes each bite memorably delicious and worthy of any celebration — especially Thanksgiving. Even if you have never made a cheesecake or pumpkin pie before, this is a dessert that is within your reach.

Find *everything* you need to know to safely fry the crispiest, most delicious holiday turkey at home.

Like the boxed stuff, but so much better.

When I first started learning how to make cocktails at home, I had no idea people made their own simple syrup. I was the person who went to the store to buy a bottle of what I later learned to be sugar water. That’s right — sugar dissolved in water. Simple syrup is an essential ingredient in cocktails and other beverages like iced coffee because it blends so well with other liquids, and it’s super easy to make yourself — we promise.

Have your dessert and drink it too.

Mac and cheese is such a solid staple. You can make macaroni & cheese from scratch, find a favorite boxed variety, or go for pure nostalgia with the frozen kind that microwaves in minutes. While some might argue that mac and cheese is an entire meal, even on the most harried nights I still want a side dish to round out the table. So, what goes with mac and cheese? Side dishes for mac and cheese can be as easy as carrot sticks or a bagged salad.

In addition to keeping a jar stashed in the pantry, I love to make a big pot of applesauce after a day of apple picking — there’s something just so satisfying about its simplicity. However, after a few days of eating it from a bowl, dusted with cinnamon, I tend to grow tired of the snack. Luckily applesauce is good for so much more than just snacking. There are loads of sweet and savory recipes using applesauce, where it serves as a useful ingredient (especially when baking!

The cream cheese layer is everything.

They’re so soft and fluffy!

Smooth and savory.

Bonus: You can assemble it ahead of time.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.Knowing how to make your own fresh mozzarella is a dangerous thing. Knowing that at any moment, should the desire present itself, you could whip up your own ball of creamy mozzarella, still warm from the whey whence it came? Yes. Very, very dangerous.

I wouldn’t expect this one change to make this big of a difference.

The wine floater is everything a cocktail could want and more.

Last Thanksgiving I made Christine Gallary’s herby garlic Thanksgiving butter, and it somehow found its way into just about every savory dish on the table. It’s easy to make, and the flavor payoff is huge. The combination of garlic, parsley, sage, thyme, and rosemary gives it that classic Thanksgiving flavor everyone loves. I drizzled the butter on roast turkey, added it to sautéed green beans, tossed it with roasted potatoes, and brushed it onto warm dinner rolls.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious. This is a soup you can be proud of. No matter how many times you’ve made it before, a pot of this soup on your stove should (and will) result in a self-congratulatory fist pump.

Even better than the original.

How many times have you found yourself in desperate need of Southern-style biscuits, but without the requisite buttermilk in the fridge? Or there’s the other scenario: You have a hankering for fried chicken, but you’re reluctant to buy an entire carton of buttermilk when you only need a cup.For either situation, I have a solution: It’s easy to make a very quick buttermilk substitute in less than 10 minutes.

That crust!

Just stir, dump, and bake.

Spoon it on everything.

The sauce is so incredible.

Linzer cookies might look like another pretty sandwich cookie, but these sweet-tart cookies have a rich, tender crumb, thanks to a nearly invisible ingredient. Almonds turned into almond flour make an everyday sugar cookie dough a tender, melt-in-your-mouth treat, fragrant with the warm notes of toasted nuts. Two cookies serve as the bookends to the sweet and sticky jam of your choice to transform into a holiday cookie made for customization. Here’s how to make them.

What food is a purer comfort than hashbrown casserole? You’ve got tender, creamy shredded potatoes floating in a rich sauce, all hidden under a golden crust of hot cheese. It walks a delicious line between breakfast and side dish. There are many kinds of potato casseroles, but for pure yumminess the crown goes to Cracker Barrel’s hashbrown version.It’s so good, in fact, that I set out to make my own version at home.

It's 100x better than plain buttered noodles.

Pure comfort.

It’s all about the gooey cheese topping.

Christmas Chex Mix is one of my favorite holiday treats that offers a welcome change from all the cookies and candy canes fighting for attention. This crispy, salty-sweet mixture even looks like Christmas — everything is coated in white chocolate, and red and green M&Ms peek through! My favorite Christmas Chex Mix blend is pretty simple — cereal, pretzels, and candy — but the sprinkle of flaky salt at the end is what takes it over the top.

Too good to be true.

From the same author as "Salt Fat Acid Heat."

They’re soft, pillowy, and perfect.

I don’t even miss cheese.

It has the best cinnamon-sugar streak in the center.

And it’s ready in 30 minutes.

Grab some candy canes.

It’s bursting with garlic flavor.

The secret ingredient: instant mashed potatoes.

Save this to your fall baking list.

Big comfort with minimal fuss.

“It’s a weeknight-friendly dish with just enough flair to feel special.”

It's not Thanksgiving without them.

When it comes to cranberries, I’m all in when the tiny, tart fruits are baked into desserts. This easy cranberry orange bread, for example, is one of my favorite ways to bake with them. Orange plays so nicely with the cranberries, adding a bit of sweetness and fragrant flavor. This cranberry orange bread isn’t too sweet, and it can be baked up into a loaf or into muffins with equal success. It’s well-worth adding to your baking rotation! Here’s how to make it.

Plus 34 more delicious Korean recipes to try.

I kept going back for more.

So cozy.

It doesn’t get better than this.

Crispy on the outside, buttery and tender on the inside.

It's time to take out your Instant Pot.

From one Midwesterner to another.

I’ll be honest: I don’t often get creative with my salads. If you come over for a weeknight dinner, I’ll likely be serving a big bowl of greens tossed with a basic vinaigrette. You could either call me a purist or boring; I like to think it’s the former. When I want to glam it up without really trying, I make this spinach salad. This is the kind of salad you make once and never have to look at the recipe again after that.

My friends can’t get enough.

It’s so easy.

It’s extra creamy and not too sweet.

My 12-inch cast iron skillet is my very best friend in the kitchen and a close second is its 12-inch stainless steel counterpart. Both pans cook more meals than any others thanks to their ability to go from stovetop to oven and sometimes to the table to serve. In general, one pan meals are ideal for weeknight cooking; they make dinner possible on busy nights and they cut down on dishwashing.

Sweet and tangy.

No holiday table is complete without sweet potatoes. Some people like theirs mashed and marshmallow-ed, while others serve theirs for dessert, but me? I prefer mine souffléd. In this sweet potato soufflé, sweet potatoes are puréed until silky-smooth, topped with a candied pecan crumble, then baked until light and puffed. They’re elegant yet rich and always hit the spot — and it’s high time they made an appearance on your spread.

Every year as the holidays approach, I eagerly anticipate holiday baking and decorating sugar cookies. And every year, they don’t exactly turn out as planned. That’s because decorating cookies is a lot easier said than done — especially if you’re a perfectionist like me who likes straight lines and clean edges. But this year, I’m prepared. I recently got to work developing a simple royal icing recipe that makes cookie decorating as stress-free (and mess-free!

Is anyone else in disbelief that it’s almost Christmas already? I say let this be the year that you mix up the menu a bit with some new side dishes, or trade in your roast beef tenderloin and baked ham for something different, like Filipino beef short ribs adobo or French onion pot roast. I like the idea of this year’s meal having a festive start with Christmas appetizers (I’m looking at you, baked pepper jelly cream cheese dip!

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.“Southern as sweet potato pie” is a saying I didn’t learn until I moved to Georgia over 10 years ago, but long before I ever came to the South I had fallen in love with sweet potato pie.

It’ll steal the spotlight.

These thin wafer cookies are perfect for gifting.

The easiest thing you can make for Thanksgiving.

It's packed with rich and smoky flavor.

When it comes to essentials, like tomato sauce, originality is overrated. Marcella Hazan’s classic tomato sauce is famous and adored, and justly so. Scads of bloggers and food writers have written about it, so I’m just following along. This is one of the best sauces I know, and it only needs three (yes, three) ingredients.Serve it over pasta with a flurry of cheese, and enjoy tomato sauce with the flair of restaurant richness.

I can’t wait to bake it again!

One scoop is never enough.

Have a ball at Thanksgiving.

Start with the honey-garlic salmon.

The best thing to happen to a chocolate kiss.

Some people have always understood that soup can be easy. I’ve just never been one of them. I’ve found myself on more than one occasion eating lunch with a friend who packed leftover soup — incredibly delicious-looking soup they’d just casually “whipped up” the night before. What was this sorcery? Doesn’t soup involve lots of chopping and simmering and layering of flavors? Apparently not, as I discovered while working on this easy pumpkin soup.

Make it while the turkey’s resting.

It’s better than anything you’ll buy in a bottle.

And it’s perfect on the leftovers sandwich, too!

Pastina is classic Italian comfort food. It’s the kind of dish that a mom might serve her kids when they are feeling under the weather, and is often one of the first solid foods a baby might eat. It’s a nostalgic childhood treat in Italy and something your kids are sure to enjoy as well. The seasoning is as easy as it gets: Just a bit of black pepper and maybe a pinch of salt, depending on the saltiness of your broth and cheese. The simplicity is what makes this dish special!

It's the only side dish you need this fall.

The slow cooker does all the work.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.Let’s talk about holiday appetizers and cocktail party snacks. Everyone needs just one or two really reliable crowd-pleasers around the holidays, no? It’s a relief for a cook to set out a plate of tasty bites while he puts the finishing touches on a meal.

If you like pecan pie, you’ll love these bars.

They’re gonna be, gonna be golden.

I grew up thinking the only way to eat butternut squash was to mash it with lots of butter, milk, and brown sugar. Although that’s a delicious way to enjoy it (it’s still one of my favorites!), I’ve learned there are many more possibilities when it comes to preparing this vegetable. You can add butternut squash to creamy risotto, blend it into soup, or turn it into fritters.

Look at those layers!

We’ve got the perfect mashed potato recipe for you (it’ll impress the pickiest of guests).

“I've been drinking, I've been drinking … ”

It’s delicious with whipped cream.

It’s like beef bourguignon in pot roast form.

Everyone will demand seconds.

“Oui oui.”

The flavor shines through!